Recently, the automobile technology is researching and developing various driving support apparatuses for the purpose of decreasing loads on a driver, preventing an accident, and ensuring preventive measures for safety. The driving support apparatuses include an adaptive cruise control system, a lane keeping system, a night vision, and a perimeter monitoring apparatus, for example. These driving support apparatuses can be used with various settings and acquire necessary information under an intended condition or automatically control a vehicle within a range applicable to an intended situation.
However, a driver needs to stop the functions or configure operation conditions of the driving support apparatuses according to surrounding situations. The driver may feel such operations troublesome but also forget a function in a situation appropriate for the apparatus to function. The driver may not be able to make the most of the available apparatus.
According to the prior art (e.g., see Patent Document 1), the apparatus is provided with an instruction from a driver or a notification from a network portion. In this case, the apparatus performs an action selection process of selecting an action to be taken by the driver based on the content of the instruction or the notification and driver information stored in RAM. The apparatus presents the driver with an action and a parameter selected by this process. When accepting an instruction for enabling the action, the apparatus determines the presented action to take. When an action or a parameter is input, the apparatus determines the changed action to take. The apparatus allows associated devices to perform a control operation based on the determined action.                Patent Document 1: JP-2003-252130 A (USP-6853896)        
The apparatus described in Patent Document 1 generates a notification in accordance with a user operation. A user cannot easily stop the notification. For example, the user needs to turn off a power supply provided for the driving support apparatus such as the adaptive cruise control system or the perimeter monitoring apparatus to disable a notification in response to a notification request supplied from the apparatus. The user may feel it troublesome to manipulate an operation unit specifically provided for the apparatus for disabling the notification.
There may be provided notification request information such as an important notification request concerning safety. In such case, it is effective to notify the information using display, sound, and vibration methods so that the user can recognize the information without fail. When the provided notification request is simply an announcement, however, the user may feel the notification using the same methods annoying.